Stories We Tell Ourselves

A man copes with abstract feelings of loss and anxiety as a long-term relationship comes to an end.

“Stories We Tell Ourselves” explores the abstract feelings of loss, the chaos of thoughts, and the anxiety that comes from the strangeness of time and memories fading away. The story is told through visual poetry and non-linear storytelling and is part of a trilogy by Andrew De Zen, which both other films ‘We Aren’t Strangers‘ and ‘The Wall‘ have been featured on Film Shortage.

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There’s this thing I got from studying Tarkovsky, the idea of ‘getting your soul across.’ It’s this idea of putting who you are into your project and being as honest as you can possibly be with yourself, I’ve been experimenting with this a lot in my projects, creating these hints and meanings through a closeup, through art, in the way a character reacts, or, say, the inclusion of a specific color.

As passive as the story may be at the first look, the attention to detail in each individual shot brings a layer of shear depth to the storyline, and the more you watch the film, the more you will discover. Andrew De Zen tells Filmsupply his vision behind “designing a film”.

There’s this idea with a lot of the stuff that I was watching — and even this series of films — where there’s no plot and no story, and that’s kind of intentional. They are these small pieces that I want to keep small, but also experiment with every element by using color in ways I’d never used color before, or designing a set in a certain way. I’m being very intentional with the through-line of the film and what I’m trying to say with it.

There’s not much dialogue, but you’re using the perspective of the characters, highlighting the mood, and meaning of things. There’s a lot of symbolism that I don’t expect a lot of people to pick up on, but it’s there for me to have that level of intent, to try and enrich it.